Victory in Europe Day

8th May, 1945 

This Thursday marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, which occurred on 8th May, 1945. The war in the Pacific was to rage on for another three months and was only brought to a conclusion with the dropping of atomic weapons on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  The Second World War resulted in a devastating loss of human life. Estimates vary, but it is thought that up to sixty million people were killed. Many of those who lost their lives were civilians and they fell victim to aerial bombardment, famine, imprisonment, disease and many other depredations associated with the pursuit of total war. Anti-Semitism led to the genocide of over six million Jews and many other minorities were also persecuted during this period. Over five million German soldiers died during the Second World War and the bombing of cities such as Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. When the guns fell silent, it was estimated that there were seven million more women than men in Germany. Such was the cost of the war. 

In some ways, VE Day was an uncomplicated outpouring of euphoria. Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen of England) and her sister, Princess Margaret, snuck out of Buckingham Palace and joined the crowds in the Mall. For one day, people put aside their differences and partied in the streets.There was bunting, merriment and plenty of drinking. It was a day when communities came together to share food (though wartime rationing was still in place) and to count their blessings. For many it was a day filled with hope as they looked to the future and the opportunity to rebuild their lives. 

Winston Churchill would be swept out of power barely two months later and the reforming Labour government of Clement Attlee would set about establishing the National Health Service and carrying out a wholesale reform of the welfare state. In the United Kingdom, the process of post-war reconstruction commenced almost immediately. However, VE Day does not seem to have made a particular impression on the editor of The Rossallian who wrote:

Those of us who went to Blackpool on V.E. Day expecting to see a great deal of excitement were disappointed. Plenty of ice cream and Union Jacks with an ‘open-to-all’ crooning centre at the Town Hall, were the main features of the day. After hearing H.M. King’s Speech in Big School, we were treated to solos by some of the Masters and then we all had a chance to air our own talents in community singing. 

Alleyn’s School at Rossall  (1940)

The summer term of 1945 was a challenging term here at School. Precisely three weeks after VE Day, a team of HM inspectors arrived and we are told that, ‘after some apprehension, we found them to be extremely sociable’. Although the  inspection appears to have  passed off well enough, the school community was rocked by the death of Mr Ellison, a much loved teacher,  who died in early June. Just a few weeks later, a fifteen year old boy collapsed and died during a PE lesson. Given that over a hundred and forty Rossallians had died during the Second World War, there must have been an overwhelming sense of loss at this time. By the end of the war, there were only three hundred and forty children left at Rossall and Alleyn’s School, with whom we shared the School campus for five years,  packed up and returned to London.

Of course, there were jubilant scenes in cities such as Paris and London and it was entirely understandable that people wanted to celebrate the end of almost six years of fighting. For many families a cloud had been lifted and loved ones would be able to return to their families after many years of absence. For some families, the void left by the death of a son, husband and father would never be filled. An empty space at a table and a visit to some corner of a distant military cemetery would be all that remained of their loved one.  My own grandfather was not demobbed from the navy until 1947 - two years after VE Day itself.  My mother had grown up not really knowing him. Fleeing the Blitz in the East End, my grandmother and her sister had moved to Bristol. Little did they realise that Bristol too would be very badly bombed.  I have often thought that, deep down,  my Mum was quite resentful of this strange man who suddenly came into their midst and started to exert his will on family affairs. Certainly, their relationship was never a straightforward or entirely happy one. My grandfather was a very popular and cheerful  figure out of the house but, at home, he expected things to be done in his own exacting way.

The Book of Matthew (Chapter 5, verse 9) states that ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’. Of course, peace is almost always an imperfect compromise and peacemakers are often motivated by pragmatism, greed and/or  political expediency rather than a heartfelt desire to bring about a peace that is both durable and morally just. Rather depressingly, the philosopher Hegel contends that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. By contrast, George Santanya reminds us that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. 

Rossall in 2025 is a very diverse and inclusive community. Whilst it is right that we should acknowledge VE Day and explore what it meant for millions of people in England, we should also reflect upon the contrasting experiences of those who experienced that day from a very different perspective. 

For many Europeans, liberation meant little more than the replacement of one form of tyranny with another form of tyranny. The Nazis might have been defeated  but Stalin had no intention of giving up territories in occupied Eastern Europe. Germany was divided into sectors, as was the city of Berlin itself. The competing ideologies of capitalism and communism met in central Europe and gave rise to the tensions of the Cold War. Europe would remain divided until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. For those living in countries such as Poland and Hungary, authoritarian rule impacted on every aspect of their daily lives. Those who resisted these new communist regimes were imprisoned and often disappeared into the distant Siberian gulag system.  

The port city of Gdansk

During the Easter break, we visited the Baltic port city of Gdansk. Situated on the northern coast of Poland, the city has what can only be described as very complex history. It has had periods of German, Polish and self rule. It was annexed by Prussia in 1793 and became part of the German Empire in 1871. After the First World War, Gdansk, or Danzig, as it was then called, became a free city under the protection of the League of Nations. By this point, 96% of those living in the city identified as German. Indeed, in the 1923 city census, only seven thousand people out of a population of just over a third of a million declared their first language to be  Polish. 

During the 1930s, the local Nazi Party in Gdansk capitalised on pro-German sentiment and gradually dominated the city government. Polish citizens were required to send their children to German state schools. Many Poles were forced to Germanize their names and they were banned from certain bars and restaurants. Polish landmarks were destroyed and Polish students were expelled from the city’s university. Local Polish railwaymen were beaten up and some were sent to concentration camps where they were murdered. The Second World War actually began in Gdansk.  In the early hours of  1st September, 1939, a German boat, the Schleswig-Holstein, attacked a Polish military transit depot in Westerplatte. 

The Polish forces were swiftly overwhelmed and the city came under direct German control until it was captured by the advancing Russian army in March, 1945. During the years of Nazi occupation, those Jews who remained in the city were transported to their deaths. Numerous Polish children from Gdansk were forcibly removed from their parents as they were considered to be ‘racially valuable’. They were sent to live in special centres in Germany and some were even adopted by German families. 

Museum of the Second World War, Gdansk

By the end of the war, over 85% of all buildings in Gdansk had been totally destroyed. A city that had been almost entirely German was now under Soviet/Polish control. All remnants of the city’s distinctive German culture were erased. The medieval city centre was rebuilt almost exclusively in a Flemish style and any traces of Germanic architectural influence were removed. Germans were expelled from the city and forced to travel westwards into Germany itself. To begin with a few Germans remained in Gdansk to assist the authorities but by 1960 they had entirely disappeared from the city. Millions of innocent German civilians  in eastern Europe were subjected to ethnic cleansing. Revenge was exacted with a cruelty that brought enormous suffering that was to last well after the official cessation of hostilities. 

Poles moved to the now underpopulated city of Gdansk and many found work in its famous shipyards. It was in the Gdansk  shipyards that the Solidarity movement, which was to  lead to the eventual demise  of the communist regime in Poland, had its origins. Visiting the Second World War Museum in Gdansk,  I was struck by the layer upon layer of suffering that people of this city had endured. Even today, there remains a palpable sense of unease when contemplating their eastern neighbours in Kaliningrad. The history of the twentieth century seems omnipresent in cities such as Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow. The celebrated historian Norman Davies' authoritative historical study of Poland is entitled ‘God’s Playground’. Situated on a geopolitical faultline, between East and West, Poland has long been vulnerable to the expansionist designs of its neighbours. 

This Thursday is a very significant day and one which is packed with emotion for many of us.  It is right that we give thanks for the defeat of fascism but we should not forget that for many families on the Continent, it was yet another  day of unfathomable loss. Of course, we should remember with pride and celebrate the bravery of those who were prepared to fight for our freedom. We should reflect upon the sacrifice of members of our own families and communities. Most importantly, we should commit to being peacemakers in our own lives and recognise that there is no room for complacency in a world which is still beset by conflict.